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HONG KONG: REVIEW OF LABOUR RELATIONS
VISIT OF PROFESSOR TURNER TO LONDON, 3 JUNE 1977
1.
Professor Turner, accompanied by Dr Patricia Fosh, had four meetings in London on Friday 3 June, to discuss with representatives of the TUC, the CBI and the ITF his interim and provisional Review of Labour Relations in Hong Kong and the directions of the concluding phase of the Review.
Meeting with Mr Jones at Transport House, 9.30 am
2.
Mr Jones asked Professor Turner how in his view trade unions in Hong Kong might be strengthened and how contact might be developed with the Federation of Trade Unions in Hong Kong.
3. Professor Turner said that trade unions in Hong Kong were misnamed. They were political, social and cultural organisations. The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions represented the mass presence in Hong Kong of the People's Republic of China and there was little chance that they would ever associate themselves with the work of any official body in Hong Kong. Attempts had been made by representatives of international trade secretariats over a long period to make contact with the FTU without success and Professor Turner's team had not been able to establish any direct contact either. The FTU did advise workers who had a specific grievance with their employers but had not made any public statement for at least three years. They were entirely under Peking control.
The Hong Kong TUC on the other hand was closely associated with Taiwan and it would be dangerous to attempt to build on unions associated with them because they were a declining force and because encouragement given to them would be resented by the FTU. It had been suggested that trade union organisations might be encouraged if compulsory recognition were introduced but, if it was, it was likely that employers would choose to recognise IIKTUC unions and that might provoke political confrontation in industry.
4. Trade unions, which were not associated with either the FTU or the HKTUC, still tended to carry out mainly social functions. In the civil service there was a large number of very small unions based on small departments, and they were * often in conflict with one another. There were only two
organisations which could be described as effective trade unions in the western sense, namely the Cable and Wireless Non-Expatriate Staff Association and the Professional Teachers' ? Union. The ITS had attempted to assist the development of
trade unions in the public and private sectors but only the PTTI had been successful in stimulating lasting development in the case of the Cable and Wireless union.
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